Albuquerque Development Thread

[ABQalex]

Here's yet more NIMBY bullsh!t. Of course they go to court because they know the chances are great that they'll get some moronic judge to agree with them. It won't stop here either. They are enabled and emboldened. These pieces of sh!t are now demanding that construction stop and even that the structures be torn down. Never mind that there's an appeals process. And never mind that this was talked about and planned for twenty years. Apparently they are okay with letting it go back to the trashy stretch of rundown structures and crumbling asphalt and concrete it was before. That's a more acceptable thing to these pigs than three-story structures with 204 affordable apartments and 20 micro-retail spaces.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/judge...pment-project/

LOS RANCHOS, N.M. – It’s business as usual on 4th Street and Osuna as crews continue construction on a 12-acre multi-use center in Los Ranchos.

“In the face of the allegations of not complying with the law, and in the face of the planning and zoning commission that they shouldn’t be doing this, even today after the judge has ruled, they are still doing construction,” said Mel Eaves, who is a member of Friends of Los Ranchos.

However, some Los Ranchos residents say there is a lot more happening behind the scenes. Developers started construction in late 2022 which came as a surprise to many residents who say they never held the proper public meetings to get approval to break ground.

“Those procedures require public notice to the residents, and they require that decisions be made in open public meetings,” said Eaves.

Eaves is also a retired attorney and has helped Friends of Los Ranchos pursue legal action. He said when they noticed the construction they warned the Village leadership and developers that they were planning to pursue legal action if they did not follow procedure.

“During that time, we filed briefs, cited the law and told them we were opposed to it. They really didn’t pay any attention to us if anything I think they speeded the construction up,” he said.

More than a year later a district court judge has ruled that developers and village leadership did in fact violate the Open Meetings Act and none of the plans drawn up this far for the project are valid.

“All actions, all approvals previously done in violation of the law are invalid. That means they do not have valid authority to do what they are doing today,” said Eaves.

The victory for Los Ranchos residents is now dimmed as construction continues at the site. Eaves said they will continue to put pressure on new village leadership to put an end to it.

“The board of trustees and the mayor now have the authority and I say the duty, to go to district court and stop construction and to assess a penalty and they ultimately can ask the court to remove the construction,” Eaves said.

KOB 4 reached out to developers and Los Ranchos leadership about the judge’s ruling. They shared the following statement:

“We want a chance to review with Legal Council and the Board, the case finding and implications. We have a posted special meeting to get that understanding.”

They will have a closed meeting on Monday, May 6 to discuss their options moving forward.

To all the supposed advocates for poor people and affordable housing, where the f*ck are you when sh!t like this is going on?? Actual discrimination and blatant classism yet you cowards are nowhere to be seen. I hope Los Ranchos continues to decline and crumble. It's what they want and deserve. If they get their way and it's torn down, I hope a homeless camp sprouts up on the weed-littered lot where this project would've been.

[ABQalex]

Still one more example of NIMBY bullsh!t for today in Albuquerque. As the saying goes, it never rains but it pours.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerqu...w-development/

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque City Councilors will be weighing if they’ll greenlight a development near Coors Boulevard and Seven Bar Loop Road on the west side of Albuquerque. However, a lot of neighbors are saying the project would be too close for comfort.

Neighbors in the Bosque del Acres neighborhood tell News 13 they aren’t against development happening nearby, but say this project is becoming more invasive than they expected.

“We don’t necessarily mind development, but my gosh, within reason you know would be nice!” said Sharon Decatur, who lives in Bosque Del Acres, “It’s a very rural lifestyle in this area which we really treasure and this is going to disrupt it and change things in a huge way.”

The Bosque del Acres Neighborhood Association, which boasts roughly 75 homes near Alameda Boulevard and Coors Boulevard, has a bone to pick with a development in the works just across the irrigation ditch. “That’s what it is right now, is a vacant lot, but they plan on building on it,” said Anita Abeyta, president of the Bosque del Acres Neighborhood Association.

The ten-acre site, being developed by Tierra West, LLC, is planned to have more than a dozen town homes, a cannabis retailer, offices, and a restaurant. “They’re actually putting quite a few in that small area, and that’s why there’s town houses as opposed to house cause they’ll just squish them in there,” Abeyta said.

When neighbors heard the news they say, at first, they were on board; but after a meeting with developers, Abeyta says they were left with concerns like the proposed town homes being too close to the ditch and too high. “Those two-story townhomes will be looking in my backyard, and I have a swimming pool that I, feel I’m losing all my privacy,” said Deborah Haycraft, who lives in Bosque del Acres.

Neighbors also say they feel developers kept requesting changes like building closer to a nearby protected archaeological site. “I feel that once they got the foot in the door so to speak, they started adding things: it was new requirements, less variances, higher, taller, closer,” Haycraft said.

“In October we learned they wanted to do a cannabis consumption lounge which sent us into a tizzy cause we’re very much against that,” Decatur said.

“The privacy, the noise, the number of people, it’s going to disturb everything we love about our neighborhood,” Haycraft said.

A city commission and hearing officer approved the developer’s requested changes, but neighbors are hoping the Albuquerque City Council will side with them.

“They should’ve designed it so that it fits the site without asking for all these variances and they should’ve worked with the neighborhood to address their concerns,” said Renè Horvath with the Westside Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (WSCONA).

News 13 spoke with Tierra West, LLC, over the phone. They declined an interview, but said they’re standing behind the project and the city’s decisions.

Albuquerque City Councilors are expected to vote Monday night on whether the developer can move forward with their amended site plan.

If we're gonna start bulldozing structures after the fact, how about we get rid of these people's homes. They're ruining the natural environment and spoiling my views of Rio Rancho and Corrales from Downtown.

[ABQalex]

What really annoys the hell out of me is that these NIMBYs always act like their neighborhoods are so special and above reproach and can't be spoiled or sullied by these developments. And that their rural or other supposedly sacred lifestyle can't be threatened with such things as a three-story building and traffic. Meanwhile, they are usually the most basic and ugly areas you can imagine, with plenty of traffic and ugly, auto-oriented development surrounding them.

Los Ranchos has historic homes and beautiful areas, but 4th Street is not one, especially this intersection. Below is what's being built directly across the street by that disgusting creep Doug Peterson. Yet another ugly strip mall, which is his forte.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/6561...ue-NM/4334653/









Isn't that Federico's restaurant in an old Taco Bell structure so charming and indicative of Los Ranchos' historic, rural character?

Yet nobody is filing lawsuits or crying over this crap destroying their special village character and way of life. These people are so full of sh!t.

Here's the existing, larger strip mall that sits diagonally-opposite the Village Center site and which Mr. Peterson is adding onto so thoughtfully and with such great regard for its special character.

https://www.loopnet.com/property/660...6202130720101/





How dare we ruin all this special character and sacred way of life with 3-story buildings. And with low-income apartments to provide an entree for the undesirables to come in and ruin Los Ranchos.

I mean, what's pictured below is crap compared to the above and will surely ruin the village.

[ABQalex]

Here's some nice pics that poster JimmyCrackedCorn shared over at SSC on Friday. They are of various parts of the city, from Downtown to EDo, the UNM and CNM campuses, and the foothills and mountains. Beautiful spring in Albuquerque!